Filipino born Ariane & Jonathan now live in New Zealand, which is where they chose to have their May wedding. The 3pm ceremony was held at in the vineyard of the Ascension Wine Estate in Matakana. “We wanted to showcase how New Zealand is part paradise and part home with our wedding, Ariane told me. “Marrying in a vineyard in the dead of autumn, what could be more gorgeous than that? Ascension Wine Estate was the perfect backdrop for us. The theme was a mish-mash of our passion for travel, photography, literature and the French countryside. We didn’t really set something in stone, but in the end, the travel-bohemian theme dominated, with hints of shabby chic and vintage.”
For the ceremony space decor, the couple added personal touches such a flowers in beer bottles, twine and pinwheels. “In the vines where the ceremony was held, we tied beer bottles with twine and hung it around. We also made pinwheels out of colorful scrapbook papers in lieu of flowers to grace the aisle. We carried that over to the reception venue by having wine bottles adorned with lace and twine as centerpieces. We also had disposable cameras in French-country muffin trays on the tables. The colors of the pinwheels in the ceremony were carried over to the reception through a candy buffet where we served colored popcorn, gummy bears and red licorice.”
The majority of the wedding decor was homemade. “The beauty of DIY was that, we have infused as much of our personality into the details of our wedding,” Ariane continued. “Our souvenirs for example, were wrapped in a brown parcel paper tied with twine and a luggage tag bearing the names of our guests. In effect, it also served as our place cards. We also put real stamps (from our collection) onto the parcels. We had 7 tables, each named after a continent. We made a world map seating chart for guests to find their seats.”
“Our cake was globe-shaped to signifying our dream to travel the world. On our candy buffet, we also had globe-shaped cake pops, which were smaller versions of our wedding cake. Even the table napkin has an old new zealand map printed on it.”
The bride’s eclectic style came through in her wedding day look. “I always wanted to delve away from the traditional bulky and itchy wedding gowns”, she explained. “I yearned for something flowy, lacy and vintagey.After a long, arduous search, I found the perfect dress off the rack from Ceci in Newmarket. It was a long sleeved, above-knee Korean doll lace dress with handmade embroidery on the hem and front. Perfect. I also added a faux fur blazer from PaperScissors. My veil was actually a lace scarf with embroidery, also from Ceci. For shoes, I got wedges from Lipstik wedges. They were adorned with twine and embroidery that matched my gown. My jewellery was all from Diva. I had matching peach and gold earrings and an owl necklace from Diva – very bohemian!”
Fabulous! Thank you to Ariane & Jonathan for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today.
